Nine teams, great costumes, a solid concession and even a beer garden: it would have been a great weekend even without the football. But it was the 30 flag football games that brought all the women together this past weekend for Sun Bowl XXXVI, the Pacific Northwest Women’s Football Championships at McAdam Park.
“It had just about everything a tournament could ask for,” said organizer Chris Mann.
He said game play was remarkable over the course of the weekend and Mother Nature made her presence known with sunshine, gale force winds that destroyed four tents, and a torrential downpour of rain and a subsequent rain delay on Sunday, just before the finals.
“It was the craziest weather we have ever witnessed on a Fathers Day/Sun Bowl weekend,” he said.
True to its name, however, the sunshine came though for the final game.
“It all added up to one of the most memorable Sun Bowls on record,” Mann noted.
Sun Bowl is about more than football, it’s about having a great weekend with friends old and new. Standard uniforms are often swapped for costumes to add to the spirit of fun.
“There was plenty of pageantry with tigers, dinosaurs, Gatorade bottles, old laundry, tropical paradise themes and even Ted Lasso had a team,” Mann said. “The weekend was highly entertaining with even a surprise visit from a few members of one of the founding member teams from 1986, The Half Pints.”
Between the white lines, however, teams wanted to win.
In the Almost Top Flight division final, the hometown Law faced the Victoria Resurrection in an epic battle of two great teams. The Law prevailed 21-0.
After going undefeated through the CWFL’s regular season and playoffs, the Cowichan Crew continued their winning streak in Sun Bowl, winning the entire tournament on the back of tournament MVP Nakisa Levali and thanks to a thrilling victory over Vancouver MayBomb in the Top Flight battle. The Crew’s Kaili Lukan was named one of two Best Offensive Players along with the Ravens’ Rikki Wylie.
MayBomb was named Most Sportsmanlike Team.
Best Defensive player awards were given to the Storm’s Ashton Aumen and Jenna Bugden of the Ruckers while the Ruckers also received the Spirit Award.